Mahatma Gandhi University

Mahatma Gandhi University
മഹാത്മാഗാന്ധി സര്‍വ്വകലാശാല

Emblem of Mahatma Gandhi University
Motto विद्यया अमृतमश्नुते (Sanskrit)
[Vidyay āmritamaṣṇute][1]
Motto in English
 Knowledge makes one immortal
Type Public
Established 1983
Chancellor Governor of Kerala
Location Kottayam, KEL, IND
Campus Semi Urban
Website www.mgu.ac.in
University entrance
Junction in front of university

Mahatma Gandhi University was established on 2 October 1983 in Kottayam district of Kerala, India.[2] Mahatma Gandhi University (formerly Gandhiji University), has been approved by UGC and accredited (B+) by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council of India. Only four universities among 15 universities in the state are qualified to receive NAAC accreditation). The university have around 100 affiliated colleges spread over five districts in central Kerala.

Also known as MG University, and abbreviated as MGU, the university has grown to become one among the Top 50 Universities in India, ranked by India Today magazine. MGU is the only university from south India selected for Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative set up by U.S.-India Governments for Institutional Partnership Grants. This created MGU to form partnership with Brown University, Duke University and Plymouth State University from USA.

The University Grants Commission of India does not believe that names of Indian universities should be unique, so another State Government-run Mahatma Gandhi University was established in 2007 in Andhra Pradesh (now in the newly formed state of Telangana) and got recognition from UGC. The decision was not challenged by the older Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala. Similarly another private university named Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU-Meghalaya) was also established through Meghalaya State legislative Act, 2010 in Meghalaya and followed by same named private universities by Uttarakhand State in 2007 and states of Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh too coming latest in this list.

Academics

The university offers around 300 academic programmes (Bachelor's, Master's, Doctoral degrees) in the fields of Pure and Applied Sciences, Technology, Paramedical Studies, Nursing, Management, Engineering, Gandhian Thought, International Relations, Politics, Physics, Nano Science, Disability Studies, Rehabilitation Sciences, Special Education, Psychology, Behavioural Medicine, Tourism, Journalism, Chemical Sciences, Polymer Engineering, Hospital Administration, Environmental Sciences, Disaster Management, Business Studies, Commerce, Economics, Arts, Pedagogical Studies, Hotel and Hospitality Management, Catering Science, Food and Nutrition, Computer Science, Biotechnology, Geoinformatics among others. Average annual student enrollment is between 17,000-18,000 (2013 statistics). [2]

Administration

Dr Babu Sebastian (former Director of SIET & IT@School) is the Vice Chancellor of the university.

Dr.Sheena Shukkur (former faculty member of the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal) serves as the Pro Vice Chancellor. The registrar is Mr. M.R. Unni and Dr. Thomas John Mampra holds the charge of Controller of Examinations. Mr. Abraham J.Puthumana acts as the Finance Officer and Mr. G. Sreekumar is the Public Relations Officer.

The university is funded by the University Grants Commission and Government of Kerala.[2] It is a member of the AIU and the ACU.[2] Association of Commonwealth Universities represents over 480 universities from Commonwealth countries.

Location

The university campus is in the Priyadarsini Hills, 13 kilometers from Kottayam Railway Station and 4 kilometers from Ettumanoor. To reach the campus take the deviation from M.C. Road at Ettumanoor or Gandhi Nagar. The nearest airport is Cochin International Airport situated at Nedumbassery, Cochin which is about 80 km away. Private buses to Ernakulam starting from the Nagampadom bus stand at the northern end of the railway platform at Kottayam stop at the university.

Mahatma Gandhi University has made its presence outside its territorial jurisdiction through the 72 off campus centres — 55 centres within Kerala, nine outside Kerala and at eight global locations.

Schools and departments

Centre for Advanced Research in Library and Information Sciences (CARLIS)

CARLIS was established in 2010 for research on technologies that can transfer existing knowledge from traditional media to future proof digital media for the networked society.

CARLIS covers two main areas; Library Science and Information Science along with their applications using technologies developed in allied areas. CARLIS started Offering PhD programmes in 2010 and the areas of research are content management, digital archiving, multimedia resources, information administration, information economics, information infrastructures, IPR issues, knowledge warehousing, language technologies, Open Access protocols, resource sharing networks etc.

It is envisaged as a national centre and will have initially an Advisory Council with experts from India and abroad, an Honorary Director, experts from different areas in knowledge management as faculty. The research by the team associated to CARLIS has developed the Digital Library package with search mechanisms for Indian scripts used in Gandhi University On line Theses Library the first official Open Access Archive of PhD theses from Indian universities.[3]

Student life

Even though MGU have a very large student community in the Kerala State, the feedback about Administration of university is poor.

Students complaints about the general lack of competence widely seen in the administration. They feel there is no proper governance, interest from the MGU officials to conduct examinations and publish results in a timely and student friendly manner. Due to the lack skills, sincerity, knowledge, computer literacy of the officials incidents were reported that students has to wait for months to get a certificate or sit an examination.

Computerisation and e-governance of the university were in such a low pace even in this cyber era, because of which students were issued deacde old style hand written mark sheets / certificates until 2013. Still there is No response from university officials to re-issue or replace such pen written by hand documents for previous batch students.

Affiliated colleges

See also

References

  1. ↑ Motto
  2. 1 2 3 4 Gupta, Ameeta; Kumar, Ashish (2006). Handbook of Universities. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. pp. 532–536. ISBN 978-81-269-0608-6. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
  3. ↑ Jancy James, Dr and Raman Nair, R. and Sreekumar, G. Doctoral Research at Mahatma Gandhi University 1983-2008: a Bibliometric Analysis. University News, 2008, vol. 46, n. 51, retrieved 20 July 2013

External links

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